Are you implying that a customer profile can no longer be created without also adding a payment profile?

I am going live within days with a monthly leased software service that starts off as a free trial. I am creating a profile after customer replies to a confirmation email on the first day. All the profile has is a customer id, their name in the description field & email. Validation mode is set to none. Do not want to hold on to this info to avoid any PCI compliance issues. That's what CIM is for.

I also do not want incur transaction costs for failed trials, nor present customer with credit card info demands right at the start. Though there is more checking than just an email confirmation, a malicious bot creating accounts / charges is also a concern. This a code fragment of the call: